Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-06-28
THE HIGH SCHOOL SERIES,


Essays Delivered by Members of the
Yankton High School Graduating
Glass OF 1857.
The following is the fifth of the
series of essays delivered by the gradu-
ates of the Yankton high school at the
recent commencement exercises. Miss
Mamie MeYay Is the author:
Fl MIRROR OF THE AaE.
The mirror of any age or people is it's
theater.
The people make the theater, for the
dramas are written to please them. We
Gan therefore readily tell their charac.
teristics--the parts they played in life
by merely CHANGING back and observing
their Hmusements.
Take the first theater, the Grecian,
picture it in the open air in o beautiful
grove, without the aid of gaslight or
footlights, for it was in the daytime, no
orchestra was heard nor was there any
scenery except that grandest of all
scenery, nature.
They had no need for the artificial. In.
stead of a crude representation placed
up for the sun they mad the real one in
all its splendor which together with the
sky and waving trees formed light End
back ground that can never be equalled
by any artificial oontrivance. Their
drama too YVES OF The highest order. The
characters taken we're usually of their
gods and godesses, There were no very
thrilling scenes, no great excitement,
everything was as natural as possible.
How typical it all was OF that pure,
btrhfv nftlftrvnI flraab ~ono To- I.-- -:
simple outdoor life. SO free from any
thing feigned or artificial and not given
to excess even III their amusen1epts.
What q contrast this quiet, peaceful scene
was to the next.
Imagine Tor q moment an amphl-
theater OF ancient Rome, with it's tier
above tier of seats crowded with thous-
ands OF spectators, the elegantly dressed
women the men 10 their purple bordered
white togas. the emperor himself in his
exalted box rs interested as the rest, ell
Intent upon the aren There gladia-
tors fight and die for their
entertainment, there their prisoners
(often the very flower of the Greek
raca) are compelled to wrestle and shed
their life blood. Half starved, infuriated
wild beasts are turned into the ring to
add their destruction to the already hor-
rible scene. Thus the contest goes ID.
1T means blood and more blood until the
sands of the arena are red with the life
stream of the contestants. The excite
ment rises higher and higher, men ap-
plaud, stamp and cheer ON the victors,
ladies rise from their seats, wave their
hanake7chiefs n scream in their ex-
citemept. This is the scene, what else
could be expected from those blood
thirsty Romans-the eonquerors Of the
world.
During Queen Elizabeth's reign, in
the time OF Spakspeare, that grand liter
AIRY age, there certainly was q marked
change in the drama.
IL seemed to look both ways, many of
the chivalrous ideas of the middle ages
still renamed and yet Shakspeare's
work placed them very high and they
looked forward years into the future. AS
they still believed in chivalry, all their
heroes came stalking on the stage in
! shining armor and with drawn swords.
The characters taken were usually OF the
mobility, lords, ladies, knights and al
though the scenery was rude, it made
the stage mech more modern in it's
appearance. The drams TO hui them
must be tragicai in the extreme, in
which cleaning swords and bloody dag
gers played an important part, most OF
the principal characters meeting q ter.
rible fate in the end. Many of Shaks-
peare'a dramas are of this character.
The theaters then being much like the
age, exciting, changing and either ex-
tremely high or very corrupt.
But how is it to-day? As we pass
along q brilliantly lighted street, we
observe q pRlstial building bright with
electric light and as many of the crowd
seem to be going that way and entering,
we follow, and are soon in q modern
theatre, with its frescoed walls and
ceiling, elegant furnishings, grand or
chestra, circle after circle of seats and
boxes filed with their gay occupants.
On the stage everything that can be
made beautiful by modern invention,
light and scenery is produced and the
effect is much helped by the music from
below.
There is almost as much OF a variety
put on the stage to-day as there are
kinds OF people in the world and it is all
symbolic of the times.
The Greeks would play nothing but
what would actually happen during the
time it was being given. but now we go
through q whole life-from birth to
1 u6Btn III hu uOtEs LIZ sRlts bu6 LILIES.
They are rushing and hurrying and
everything is obliged to keep pace.
1t is action that we want.
Many object to Shakespeare on this
account. 1t takes too much time to give
"Hamlet's Soliloq1y."
We prefer the "sleep walking scene"
in Macbeth or the 'sword playing" in
Richard III.
But how will we compare with what
has gone before? Perhaps not as high
as the Greeks, certainly not go cruel as
the Romans, We do not GO to such
heights of granduer as in the sixteenth
century, neither to such depths of cor
ruptiop. for much OF Shakespeare has to
be expurgated in order to r,ake it pre-
sentable to-day. But Whit will the
people of the twentieth century think of
us, Judging by our theaters ? Let us look
into onr mirror, the stage OF today.
We have our tragedies and comedies,
the reflection true to the times?
Are there not as many sad tragedies
and amusing comedies enacted off the
stage as ever are put on the stage OF
to-day?
Many make comedies of their whole
lives. Take the Irish race, for instance.
What can equal Irish wit? And how
ridiculous to think of an Irishman
ticking part In a tragedy when his whole
life is so evidently q comedy from be-
ginning TO end.
Others are living o real tragedy for ex.
ample tine person who has had g hand
in taking the life of another and who is